


orbital debris

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Keith has a crush, Lance (Voltron)-centric, M/M, Pre-Relationship, and who wouldn't, give me all the soft love, i love lance okay, lance is amazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-21 16:06:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11360865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: It was a truth universally acknowledged that Lance was pretty. Handsome. Whatever you want to call it.It seems obvious to Keith by the way literally every alien species seems to be charmed by him. So what happens when they meet some aliens who think he's horrendously ugly?





	orbital debris

**Author's Note:**

> I just love Lance, okay?

It was a truth universally acknowledged that Lance was pretty. Handsome. Whatever you want to call it.

It seemed that celebrations, like life-threatening space battles, had become part of the daily aspect of being Voltron. If Keith had his way, he'd be in Red and heading back to the castle, but Shiro had asked him to make more of an effort, so here he was. The planet was a strange one, hot and dry, the atmosphere unbreathable, an apparent wasteland. But the people who lived here loved their home planet fiercely, if this elaborate party was any indication. The aliens were also strange, vaguely humanoid but distinctly... Keith had no other way of describing them, except insect-like. They had a hard sort of exoskeleton and pincers, their eyes huge and eerie. He'd never admit it to anyone, except maybe Shiro, but he found them unnerving. Their giant eyes seemed to follow him whenever he moved and they never blinked. Just stared.

True to his word, Keith had done his best to be polite, lingering at the party and attempting to mingle with their hosts. He'd tried pronouncing the name of their species, but it was long and featured clicking noises and Keith didn't even bother to try. A large feast had been prepared, that none of the Paladins could take part in with their helmets firmly sealed, but that didn't stop the insects. For once in his life, Keith was incredibly glad to forego a free meal. The aliens ate a sort of larvae that looked like a giant slug. It had been an uncomfortable meal.

But now that dinner was over, he was itching to get back to Red. He wanted to leave this planet, he wanted the castle, and he wanted his own bowl of food goo. And if Keith was being honest with himself, he wanted to get away from these aliens.

"Red paladin."

Keith started at the raspy voice that addressed him, and spun around to face a small-ish alien. "H-hello." 

Shaky, but not hostile.

"Are you unsatisfied with the festivities?" The pincers and the dry air made the voice raspy and the clicks made it hard to understand.

"Oh! No, that's not it! I'm just not really--uh a party guy."

The alien made a click-y noise, and backed away. "I understand. I will leave you."

"Wait! No, that's not what I--" but the alien had left and Keith cursed his awkwardness, scanning the room for Shiro to make sure he hadn't seen his latest flub. It was hard to pick out any of the paladins in the swarm of almost identical human-sized bugs.

A flash of blue caught his eye, and he found Lance surrounded by a very intent group of aliens. They had no concept of gender, seemed to be closer to insect than human, but of course that didn't stop Lance. Keith could just make out his voice over the din of the party.

"Wow," he said, and it was completely genuine. "Your shell is so glossy! How do you keep it clean with all this sand?" 

The alien he addressed preened and the rest of them tittered with excitement as they vied for his attention. But it was clear they wanted him to keep talking and it sounded like they kept asking him questions.

"This? No, it's not an exoskeleton, sadly. I have bones on the inside of my body. This is just armor I wear to help protect me."

The aliens were engrossed, and Lance chatted with them amicably, steadily drawing a bigger crowd. It was amazing to watch, really. He had this way of addressing everyone, or maybe making eye contact or something, that made it seem like he was talking to them individually, no matter how many aliens tried to get his attention.

Keith studied Lance from across the room. This wasn't an unusual occurrence. Lance was liked at nearly every planet they'd been to and even been offered a marriage proposal once. He couldn't help the grin as he remembered Lance's sputtering face at that one. It didn't matter if the aliens were dainty space girls, or genderless blobs, or even vaguely grasshoppery like these, but Lance had a charm about him that nobody seemed to be able to resist.

He couldn't pinpoint what it was, exactly. There was no particular feature that stood out. He was tall and lanky, but that was only relative to humans. They'd met both much smaller and much, much larger aliens. He wasn't _handsome_ , exactly, not in the traditional sense, but he wasn't bad looking. At all. It wasn't just one thing, Keith decided. It was all of them together. The tan skin, the blue eyes that sparkled, the shit-eating grin. It wasn't so much his face, but the expressions on it. The earnest and honest way he listened and communicated with others, even aliens. 

If he was honest with himself, he was jealous of the easy way Lance seemed to just _fit._ Everywhere he went.

As the party died down, and the Paladins of Voltron gave their final farewells, Lance staggered to Black with the rest of the team, his arms full of completely average looking rocks. 

Pidge snickered. "Why are you carrying an armful of rocks?"

But Lance huffed and tightened his arms. "They were gifts."

Pidge laughed as they boarded Black, watching Lance struggle to balance all the rocks. He set them on the floor in a neat pile, and took off his helmet, shaking out his sweaty hair and grabbing for Pidge so he could hold her down and mess up her hair. Pidge squealed and complained loudly when Lance managed to wrangle her into his lap, claiming he stunk, but he just laughed, and went about righting her helmet hair.

"Dude," Hunk said, and Keith jumped. "You're staring."

"What? No. What're you--Was not."

"I get it," Hunk said, watching Lance and Pidge play. "There's just something about him when he's happy, y'know?"

Keith huffed and turned away. He wondered if every single alien in the universe would like Lance, too.

* * *

Lance had sort of taken a diplomatic role on the team, much to Coran's approval, and when contacting planets to make alliances and answering calls on the bridge, Lance was often beside Allura, lending a hand with that natural charm of his.

For safety reasons, the Pikari royalty had requested an audio feed only during negotiations, so now that it was time to meet them in person, they were all a bit nervous. They all met in the docking bay, and the loud hiss of a ship connecting to the castle meant the Pikari were about to board. Lance stood up front with Allura, shoulders squared, Hunk just behind him. Shiro stood next to Pidge, and Keith could feel the tension rolling off him in waves. Keith was slouched against the castle wall, the weight of his dagger comforting against his hip.

The doors hissed open, and three enormous figures emerged. The Pikari were easily thirteen feet tall, and vaguely humanoid--they had two arms and two legs, but that's where the similarities ended. Their skin was rough and hairless, their torsos almost twice as broad as Shiro's and their arms were as thick as Coran's whole body. They were dressed in battle armor, their small beady eyes hidden behind ornate helmets. One of the Pikari gasped. Tension was thick as the two groups sized one another up.

Lance took a step forward, and Keith felt himself tense. _That idiot better not get himself hurt..._

"It's an honor to host the Pikari royalty," he said with a smile, loud and clear in the silent room. "We spoke on the comms. I am the Blue Paladin. You can call me Lance."

One of the Pikari, the largest stepped forward and looked down at Lance, looming over him. Keith reached for his knife.

"Stars above," the alien said, voice surprisingly clear and distinctly boyish. "You're hideous."

A beat of silence.

Lance's howling laughter killed the awkward pause, and the tension drained from the room. Lance was laughing, tears in his eyes, clutching his stomach. "Oh, I bet Keith would agree with that," he said, breathless. Keith wanted to argue but Lance continued. "Please tell me what you think of him. Is he ugly too? Oh, please tell me. He's the grouchy one in the corner."

The Pikari shifted their gaze to him and said solemnly "Appalling."

Lance laughed again, and reached out and patted the Pikari's arm. They seemed curious at the physical content, but not upset.

The largest one stepped forward. "You must excuse my blood. Although Fri'va is no longer a calf and is heir to the throne... he lacks any skill in diplomacy."

"That's quite alright, Your Immensity," Allura said. "We are honored to have you on board. Shall we move to a more comfortable location?"

The Pikari accepted the offer, and the whole group made their way to the bridge. Allura lead the Pikari, the three aliens following. Shiro shook his head and sighed as Lance caught up to Fri'va. 

"So," Lance said, absolutely gleeful. "I'm ugly. Hideous. What in particular do you find so horrible. Please, I must know."

Fri'va cocked his head, a gesture that seemed out of place on his hulking body. But he obliged. "You are far too small, almost helpless. Worse than a calf. Your skin is disgustingly smooth, has no texture, although it is an unusual shade. Your eyes are large and souless, and your nose far too small. How would you survive the fiery rocks of Tanglar? You have no muscle mass, far too skinny, you must be helpless. It's revolting."

Keith didn't think Lance's vanity could endure such a beat down, but he looked like he was having the time of his life. "We can't all be beautiful," he said, not sounding sorry about it at all.

"Are  _any_ of us passable by Pikari standards? Or are we all just hideous?" 

Fri'va paused. "The Yellow Paladin is not... unpleasant to the eye," he said without embarrassment.

"Now  _there's_ something we can agree on," Lance said, flashing a grin at the Yellow Paladin. Hunk was bright red and looked like he wanted to melt into the floor. "What do you like about him? I love his arms. So strong, yet so gentle."

"He is enchanting. Suitably shapely, yet... delicate without being insubstantial."

Lance nodded seriously. "He's also a complete tech genius and a wizard in the kitchen."

"Wizard?"

"Kind of like prodigy. He's amazing. Unprecedented."

Fri'va nodded in curious understanding, turning to look at Hunk. Hunk, at a loss for what to do, awkwardly waved. Fri'va raised his hand and shook it back, clearly not used to the gesture but mimicking Hunk as best he could.

"Isn't he something?" Lance stage-whispered to Fri'va conspiratorially. 

"Adorable."

As they made their way onto the bridge, it seemed like Keith finally had the answer to his question. Apparently aliens  _did_ exist that found Lance to be ugly. It was an amusing thought, but Lance did not seem sad about it. In fact, he was incredibly interested in Pikari beauty standards. As the Pikari prepared to depart, Keith realized he hadn't said a word to them. Not a single thing. He cursed his awkwardness, but there was nothing to do about it now. Besides, none of them really had to say anything since Lance had been chatting the whole time, smoothing things over, keeping the peace.

Keith was glad the Pikari were leaving. Having strangers near him made him tense. But for all their intimidating size, Keith found that he liked them, despite not interacting at all. It was just a bonus that Fri'va was so blunt and had spent the majority of their time together detailing exactly what he thought to be so ugly about Lance. It was refreshing. Now they knew, it was no longer a  _universal_ fact.

As Fri'va was boarding the ship, he turned to Lance to say goodbye. 

"It was a pleasure meeting you, Fri'va," Lance said with genuine sincerity.

"An interesting experience, indeed," he replied easily. But then Fri'va had to go and ruin everything. Was it too much to ask to get just one thing? He just wanted to be able to tease Lance about being ugly, later, but no, Lance and his stupid face had to woo everything in the universe.

As he boarded the ship, Fri'va tossed over his shoulder, "You are quite charming for such a spindly creature."

Damn it all.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> hit me up on tumblr [ @bluethepaladin ](%E2%80%9Dbluethepaladin.tumblr.com%E2%80%9D)


End file.
